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Observations on the Planting of the Vine and Rot in Grapes (May 28, 1833)
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Observations on the Planting of the Vine and Rot in Grapes May 28, 1833 Herbemont used a disagreement with neighbor and vintner Abraham Geiger as a pretext to discuss how the root system of the grapevine could be sculpted by the cultivator to maximize the vigor of the plant and its resistance to disease. In a letter to the Southern Agriculturist titled “On the Cultivation of the Grape Vine,”1 Geiger had doubted the efficacy of deep trenching in planting vineyards and also preventing black rot. Like Herbemont, Geiger struggled to understand the nature of that malady of the grape. He speculated it might be a pollution introduced by the predations of the Hessian fly. He and a Mr. Heller examined grapes under a microscope, attempting to determine the rot’s character.2 They did not discern that the affliction was a fungus. Perhaps only one man living in the United States at that juncture could have determined this—Lewis David de Schweinitz. This German-American Moravian had lived in Salem, North Carolina, in the 1810s, where he published in 1818 the first masterwork of American mycology, The Fungi of North Carolina (1818). In 1833 he was attempting to complete his summary view, “A Synopsis of North American Fungi.”3 The character of the rot—Guignardia bidwellii—would not be determined until decades after Herbemont’s death. In an editorial coda to this letter, J. Legaré wrote “Mr. Geiger’s success will give an impetus to the culture, which will show itself in the springing up of vineyards in many parts of our State. The culture, we are happy to learn, is already spreading. The great check to this has been, and is, the rot, which sometimes destroys nearly the whole crop; if a remedy for this can ever be found, then, indeed, will the vine become a favourite” (348). Published in Southern Agriculturist 6, no. 7 (July 1833), 342–48. 1. Southern Agriculturist 6, no. 3 (March 1833), 124–28. 2. “Copy of a letter addressed to Mr. N. Herbemont, by Mr. Abraham Geiger, and offered by him to the United Agricultural Society of South-Carolina,” Southern Agriculturist 3, no. 7 (July 1830), 363. 3. “Synopsis Fungorum in America Boreali media degentium,” American Philosophical Society Transactions 4 (1834), 134–316. published letters 214 Columbia, (S.C.) May 28, 1833 Dear Sir,—I have observed in the number of the Southern Agriculturist for the month of March last, a communication from that very interesting and persevering cultivator, Mr. Abraham Geiger, on the subject of the culture of the vine, and particularly on the manner of planting it to the best advantage and least expense; and also on the cause of the rot in grapes, &c. Any thing proceeding from so intelligent a source is highly deserving of full consideration, and my personal regard for this gentleman, ought not, and cannot prevent my defence of modes of planting and culture which I have hitherto defended, because, I could but presume that practices recommended by almost all writers on the subject, must have been thus advocated from a consciousness of honest motives, based on the experience of ages; but surely not with a view of causing ‘the culture of the vine to be looked upon as something mysterious’—and thereby ‘contrived and intended to be made difficult and laborious.’ It is very natural for a man who has acquired experience by the practice of a particular art for many years, to imagine that there is no difficulty or mystery attending it. He is also apt to forget that it has probably cost him the labour and observation of years to come to this conclusion. Let any man of any common share of understanding undertake the practice of any art which he has only heard or read of, and simple though it may be, it will require a number of trials before he can reach the desired object, and find out that there is no mystery or difficulty in the practice. That there is no more difficulty in the culture of the vine than in that of any other plant, appears evident enough from the scale of intelligence of the common vine-cultivators all over the world where it is cultivated for wine. It cannot be denied, however, that each plant has its peculiar habits, and that it grows, thrives, and is as fruitful as its nature admits, only in soils and situations particularly suited to it. The planting of trees of any sort is...